Research in the field of neuropsychoimmunology has enabled the researchers to show that cytokines target the brain to organize a "sickness response," which is fever, activation of hypothalamuspituitary – adrenal axis and behavioural alterations that develop in sick individuals. Perypheral cytokines do not act directly on the brain; they trigger the production of cytokines in the brain parenchima itself, with a possible relay at the interface between internal milieeu and the brain, which are endothelial cells and circumventricular organs. The affective and behavioural changes that develop during influenza are the product of a transient brain inflammatory response induced by the same proinflammatory cytokines that are produced in the bronchial tree. The cytokine pattern is distal to this phenomenon while the receptor molecules that decipher the molecular nature of microbial pathogens (pathogens associated molecular patterns PAMPs) at the membrane level of cells is a proximal factor. PAMPs are recognized by specialized receptors on innate immune cells that belong to the TOLL/IL-1 like receptor family. These receptors are phylogenetically old. the brain uses these receptors to defend itself against something different (several forms of brain injury that have nothing to do with infectious pathogens) from infectious pathogens. Assuming that the factors that activate these receptors involve endogenous substances derived by cell death (cell death by-products) is the concept at the origin of the danger theory. Evidence in favor of a citokines role in mediating mood disorders and cognitive disturbances in patients receiving cytokine immunotherapy is fast growing (capuron e dantzer 2003). Several items of data support the role for cytokines in mediating a variety of non specific symptoms that develop in patients suffering from diseases with an inflammatory component (cad, immunorheumatolic, neuropathologies). These non-specific neurovegetative and psychiatric symptoms represent just another facet of the inflammatory process and they are not necessarily derived from a direct causeeffect chain.


We present in this thesis a modeling style and control synthesis technique for system-level specifications that are better described as a set of concurrent descriptions, their synchronizations and complex constraints. For these types of specifications, conventional synthesis tools will not be able to enforce design constraints because these tools are targeted to sequential components with simple design constraints. In order to generate controllers satisfying the constraints of system-level specifications, we propose a synthesis tool called Thalia that considers the degrees of freedom introduced by the concurrent models and by the system''s environment. The synthesis procedure will be subdivided into the following steps: We first model the specification in an algebraic formalism called control-flow expressions, that considers most of the language constructs used to model systems reacting to their environment, i.e. sequential, alternative, concurrent, iterative, and exception handling behaviors. Such constructs are found in languages such as C, Verilog HDL, VHDL, Esterel and StateCharts. Then, we convert this model and a suitable representation for the environment into a finite-state machine, where the system is analyzed, and design constraints such as timing, resource and synchronization are incorporated. In order to generate the control-units for the design, we present two scheduling procedures. The first procedure, called static scheduling, attempts to find fixed schedules for operations satisfying system-level constraints. The second procedure, called dynamic scheduling, attempts to synchronize concurrent parts of a circuit description by dynamically selecting schedules according to a global view of the system.


BACKGROUND
There is great interest in circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) as disease biomarkers. Translating promising miRNAs into validated clinical tests requires the characterization of many preanalytical and analytical parameters.

METHODS
miRNAs were extracted from serum and plasma samples of healthy volunteers, and miRNAs known to be present in serum and plasma (miR-15b, miR-16, miR-24, and miR-122) were amplified by reverse-transcription quantitative PCR. Stability and the effects of hemolysis were determined. Assay variation and its components, including the effect of adding control miRNA, were assessed by nested ANOVA.

RESULTS
miRNA concentrations were higher in plasma than in serum. Processing of plasma to remove subcellular/cellular components reduced miRNA concentrations to those of serum. The miRNAs analyzed were stable refrigerated or frozen for up to 72 h and were stable at room temperature for 24 h. Hemolysis increased the apparent concentration of 3 of the miRNAs. The total variability of replicate miRNA concentrations was <2.0-fold, with most of the variability attributable to the extraction process and interassay imprecision. Normalizing results to those of spiked exogenous control miRNAs did not improve this variability.

CONCLUSIONS
Detailed validation of the preanalytical steps affecting miRNA detection and quantification is critical when considering the use of individual miRNAs as clinical biomarkers. Unless these causes of imprecision are considered and mitigated, only miRNAs that are extremely up- or downregulated will be suitable as clinical biomarkers.


This paper provides approximate fatigue life estimates for aluminum cylinders with a constant ratio of outer to inner radii 2.2 which were subjected to autofrettage pressure. Experimental tests of cylinders made of aluminum alloy are part of this article. Numerical simulations of the cylinders were also performed using the finite element code, ABAQUS. The resulting stresses are then used to calculate stress intensity factors to determine fatigue life. Using standard fatigue crack growth relationship, life of the cylinder is then calculated based on recommended initial and final crack length. The results show that the fatigue life due to autofrettage is more than nonautofrettage cylinder between Py1 and Py2 where, Py1 is the pressure required at the onset of yielding which occurs at the inner surface of the cylinder and Py2 is the sufficient pressure to bring the outer surface of the cylinder to yielding, i.e. the wall of cylinder becomes fully plastic.


In teaching and learning process in the class, there are a lot of students who find some difficulties in learning English. One of the difficulties that the students find in English learning activity is pronunciation. Pronunciation is important because it is the way someone communicate to other, express ideas, feelings, and thought in speaking form. The objective of this research is to know whether there is an Influence of Using Minimal Pairs towards Students' Pronunciation Ability. The research methodology used was quasi experimental design. In this study, we analyzed student responses on an optimized pretest and posttest administered during two different class in a english course. The researcher took two classes, one class as the experimental class and one class as the control class. In the experimental class, the researcher used Minimal Pairs and in the control class the teacher used Reading Aloud. The meetings held in three times in which 2 x 45 minutes for each class. After doing posttest, then the researcher analyzed the data using SPSS to compute t . The result is using Minimal Pairs was a significant influence towards students' pronunciation ability. It shown from Sig = 0.025 < 𝛼 = 0.05.


Ribosomal protein S6 (RPS6) is an indispensable plant protein regulated, in part, by ribosomal protein S6 kinase (S6K) which, in turn, is a key regulator of plant responses to stresses and developmental cues. Increased expression of RPS6 was detected in Nicotiana benthamiana during infection by diverse plant viruses. Silencing of the RPS6 and S6K genes in N. benthamiana affected accumulation of Cucumber mosaic virus, Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV), and Potato virus A (PVA) in contrast to Turnip crinkle virus and Tobacco mosaic virus. In addition, the viral genome-linked protein (VPg) of TuMV and PVA interacted with S6K in plant cells, as detected by bimolecular fluorescence complementation assay. The VPg-S6K interaction was detected in cytoplasm, nucleus, and nucleolus, whereas the green fluorescent protein-tagged S6K alone showed cytoplasmic localization only. These results demonstrate that the requirement for RPS6 and S6K differs for diverse plant viruses with different translation initiation strategies and suggest that potyviral VPg-S6K interaction may affect S6K functions in both the cytoplasm and the nucleus.


The objective of the article is to present a proposal for the restructuring of the interurban transportation system of travellers by road in Aragon, based on a previous diagnosis. Several sources of information and spatial analysis methods are used. The difficulty of providing a quality transport service in regions of low population density and settlements dispersion is noted and the inefficiencies of the current system of linear concessions are identified. A new system of zonal concessions is proposed, which allows for greater coordination and integrates general and school transportation. The proposal is valued economically and compared with the plans of the regional administration.


[1] Climate change models predict changes in precipitation patterns over the next several decades for northern temperate regions. Resulting fluctuations of the water level may drastically affect the source-sink functions of peatlands. Here, we manipulated the water table level in an acidic, minerotrophic fen using drying and rewetting experiments to simulate summer drought and heavy rainfalls to estimate changes in peat decomposition and source-sink functions. We found that carbon dioxide (CO2) formation rates and exoenzymatic activities increased in the most active surface layer during the initial water table drawdown; however, extreme drying did not further increase these activities. Activity stimulated in deeper oxygenated peat layers did not substantially contribute to CO2 emissions. Additionally, no phenol oxidase activity was determined. Rewetting of peat after drying did not lead to a CO2 flush like in mineral soils. Water table manipulations yielded a higher availability of nitrate, ferric iron, and sulfate and prolonged the onset of methane formation. Sulfate was exported to a nearby stream. We concluded that the increasing frequency of extreme weather conditions like summer droughts and heavy rainfalls might not affect carbon storage but instead strengthen the sink function for nitrate and ferrous iron and the source function for sulfate in peatlands.


We consider the problem of grooming in all-optical networks to maximize traffic. We present an integer-programming formulation while constraining the number of optical transceivers at each node, the link load, and the capacity of each lightpath. Based on the structural properties of the problem, we develop a heuristic based on a column-generation technique. The algorithm is easy to implement, requires a modest amount of CPU time, and provides high-quality solutions. To ascertain the quality of solutions obtained by our algorithm, we present an alternative formulation that allows us to develop an upper bound using a Lagrangian-relaxation technique. An extensive computational study is presented.


In order to prepare for the suitable surfaces of implants or medical devices, quantitative evaluation of adhesion between cells and biomaterials is essential. To better understand adhesion formation between cells and biomaterials, we used the cytodetachment technique which measures the adhesive force of a single cell through changing the culture time and detachment speed. The results showed that the adhesive force could be affected by the culture time of cells on the surface of materials and the detachment speed. Moreover, there was a large discrepancy among the adhesion strength measured by similar techniques conducted on the different cells and substrates. It can be concluded that the variation of the force measurement technique can seriously alter the level of the force required to detach a cell on the surface of materials.


The National Center for Biomedical Ontology is a consortium that comprises leading informaticians, biologists, clinicians, and ontologists, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Roadmap, to develop innovative technology and methods that allow scientists to record, manage, and disseminate biomedical information and knowledge in machine-processable form. The goals of the Center are (1) to help unify the divergent and isolated efforts in ontology development by promoting high quality open-source, standards-based tools to create, manage, and use ontologies, (2) to create new software tools so that scientists can use ontologies to annotate and analyze biomedical data, (3) to provide a national resource for the ongoing evaluation, integration, and evolution of biomedical ontologies and associated tools and theories in the context of driving biomedical projects (DBPs), and (4) to disseminate the tools and resources of the Center and to identify, evaluate, and communicate best practices of ontology development to the biomedical community. Through the research activities within the Center, collaborations with the DBPs, and interactions with the biomedical community, our goal is to help scientists to work more effectively in the e-science paradigm, enhancing experiment design, experiment execution, data analysis, information synthesis, hypothesis generation and testing, and understand human disease.


In the microelectronics industry, manufacturers are concerned with increasing yield and reducing costs. Monitoring of unit manufacturing processes helps alleviate errors during fabrication, thereby increasing yield and ultimately decreasing cost. This work proposes an acoustic method for in-situ monitoring of electrochemical deposition. A micromachined acoustic sensor was developed for this purpose. During electroplating processes, changes in the plating solution composition result in changes in an acoustic signal transmitted through the bath. A predictive model of the progression of metallization during electroplating was established based on signals from the acoustic sensor. The sensor data and measured plated metal thickness were recorded and mapped to yield an empirical relationship between the two, thereby enabling real-time monitoring of electroplating.


The article by Ukrainian ethnologist Roman Tarnavskyi (Роман Богданович Тарнавський) deals with the history of educational process at Department of Ethnology, Lviv University during the interwar period (1924–1939). Teachers of this Department focused on studying Slavic ethnology by means of field ethnography and comparative historical method. These scholars' interests originally included the genesis of the phenomena of material and spiritual culture together with ethnic roots of various Slavic people, especially Ukrainians and Poles. Keywords: the Department of Ethnology, Lviv University, Adam Fischer, ethnology, ethnography, field research, comparative historical method, Ukrainians, Poles. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15181/td.v12i0.1555


: The seroprevalence of ehrlichiosis was investigated in 1,216 dogs from eight administrative areas in five regions with different climates. In and around Tunis, where the animals receive satisfactory care, the average prevalence is 49%, but it ranges from 75 to 85% in the other regions of the interior. The authors underline the importance of this disease and describe the conditions which favour its transmission. They also note that the high percentage of asymptomatic carriers provides further proof that Ehrlichia canis is an opportunist pathogen in endemic areas.


We propose a selective encoding model to extend the sequence-to-sequence framework for abstractive sentence summarization. It consists of a sentence encoder, a selective gate network, and an attention equipped decoder. The sentence encoder and decoder are built with recurrent neural networks. The selective gate network constructs a second level sentence representation by controlling the information flow from encoder to decoder. The second level representation is tailored for sentence summarization task, which leads to better performance. We evaluate our model on the English Gigaword, DUC 2004 and MSR abstractive sentence summarization datasets. The experimental results show that the proposed selective encoding model outperforms the state-of-the-art baseline models.


Airborne laser altimetry provides an unprecedented view of the forest floor in timber fuel types and is a promising new tool for fuels assessments. It can be used to resolve two fuel models under closed canopies and may be effective for estimating coarse woody debris loads. A simple metric-obstacle density-provides the necessary quantification of fuel bed roughness to make these measures possible. This work highlights the need for more research in the application of laser technology to fuels mapping.


Objective To identify the autoantigen in 2 individuals with possible seronegative paraneoplastic neuropathy. Methods Serum and CSF were screened by tissue-based assay and panned for candidate autoantibodies by phage display immunoprecipitation sequencing (PhIP-Seq). The candidate antigen was validated by immunostaining knockout tissue and HEK 293T cell-based assay. Results Case 1 presented with gait instability, distal lower extremity numbness, and paresthesias after a recent diagnosis of serous uterine and fallopian carcinoma. Case 2 had a remote history of breast adenocarcinoma and presented with gait instability, distal lower extremity numbness, and paresthesias that progressed to generalized weakness. CSF and serum from both patients immunostained the axon initial segment (AIS) and node of Ranvier (NoR) of mice and enriched βIV-spectrin by PhIP-Seq. Patient CSF and serum failed to immunostain NoRs in dorsal root sensory neurons from βI/βIV-deficient mice. βIV-spectrin autoantibodies were confirmed by overexpression of AIS and nodal βIV-spectrin isoforms Σ1 and Σ6 by a cell-based assay. βIV-spectrin was not enriched in a combined 4,815 PhIP-Seq screens of healthy and other neurologic disease patients. Discussion Therefore, βIV-spectrin autoantibodies may be a marker of paraneoplastic neuropathy. Classification of Evidence This study provides Class IV evidence that βIV-spectrin antibodies are specific autoantibody biomarkers for paraneoplastic neuropathy.


Background Introduction of mental health service users and their family within undergraduate health profession courses has become routine in many curriculums. Few studies have explored the expectations and perceptions of such presenters. Objectives This study reports the perceptions of nine carers and consumers in a regional Australian University. Design A descriptive design was utilised. Participants were recruited via a consumer and carer support group. A semi-structured interview and thematic analysis of the data were used to generate themes. Findings The analysis identified six common themes that addressed personal benefits, an imperative to increase the awareness of others, a desire to do something worthwhile, personal changing of perspectives, expectations of the presentation role and characteristics of the presenter. Several points of difference between presenters and non-presenters and issues relating to rural and regional settings were identified. Conclusions These findings suggest that in rural and regional areas participation is more likely when life circumstances exhibit employment stability as some feel threatened by stigma. The theme of 'expectations' adds to current knowledge, with presenter's expectations often being exceeded in terms of student attitudes across different study programs.


The typical cell is a key concept for stochastic-geometry based modeling in communication networks, as it provides a rigorous framework for describing properties of a serving zone associated with a component selected at random in a large network. We consider a setting where network components are located on a large street network. While earlier investigations were restricted to street systems without preferred directions, in this paper we derive the distribution of the typical cell in Manhattan-type systems characterized by a pattern of horizontal and vertical streets, designed to model real cities with a gridlike layout. We explain how the mathematical description can be turned into a simulation algorithm, provide numerical results uncovering novel effects when compared to classical isotropic networks and finally compare the results to a real street system.


Lamotrigine is an antiepileptic drug which by inhibiting voltage dependent sodium channels inhibits release of glutamate. Thus Dopaminergic system is removed from inhibitory influence of glutamate, causing increase in levels of dopamine in striatum resulting in stereotyped behavior (SB) or abolition of catalepsy in animals. Objectives of our study were to study the effect of Lamotrigine (LTG)on dopamine dependent behaviours in rats and compare its intensity with effects produced by Dexamphetamine (DAM) and Apomorphine (APO), to study the effect of pretreatment of HAL on SB induced by LTG. and to study effect of LTG on catalepsy induced by HAL. We also did similar pretreatments with APO and DAM which we have used as reference drugs. We used albino rats of either sex (120-180 g) by random distribution in group of 10 animals each. Intensity of SB and catalepsy is assessed by Costall and Naylor scoring system. Our results indicate that, LTG produced (SB) at 5,10,20 and 40 mg/kg .Which is less in intensity than 1.5 , 3mg/kg of APO and 5 , 10 mg/kg of DAM. This SB was abolished by HAL at 0.25 and 0.50 mg/kg, therefore we state that Lamotrigine produces SB by releasing dopamine and on weight basis LTG is less potent in antagonizing haloperidol induced catalepsy as compared to DAM and APO.


Evidence suggests that the cultural context influences the performance of laws, policies, and political institutions. Descriptive accounts reveal that outcomes and behaviors often depend on the array of historical institutions. This article presents a multi-institutional framework that can account for those findings through path-dependent behavioral spillovers. Individuals learn equilibrium behaviors when interacting in a new institutional setting. Initially, some individuals choose behaviors that align with their behaviors in similar extant institutions, creating a cultural context that can lead to inefficient outcomes. The article shows how avoiding path dependence requires sequencing (or designing) institutions to maintain behavioral diversity. Optimal sequencing thus requires positioning institutions with clear incentives early in the sequence as well as avoiding strong punishments that can stifle attempts to break established behavioral patterns.


Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th US President (1953 to 1961), summarized the plow dilemma by stating, "Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you are a thousand miles from corn field" (Eisenhower 1956). Despite great progress in agriculture since the 1950s, farming may now pose even bigger challenges because of the increasing demand for food, feed, fiber, and fuel in the 21st century. The challenges of farming are exacerbated by a changing and uncertain climate, increase in risks of soil degradation by erosion and other processes driven by decline in soil organic carbon (SOC) concentration and pool, increase in dependence on energy-based inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides, high risks of shifts in spectrum of pests and pathogens, and decrease in availability of soil and water resources because of diversion to nonagricultural uses. Hence, there is a growing emphasis on sustainable intensification, climate-resilient and eco-efficient agroecosystems, and the linkage of farming and soil management to sustainable development goals (United Nations 2014). Research on and adoption of conservation agriculture (CA) started during the 1960s. Presently, the literature is replete with merits, limitations, and uncertainties of no-till (NT) systems (table 1). It is because of these limitations and uncertainties…


This paper aims to explore and describe the way in which start-up firms are grouped into industries. To this end, a quantitative research approach is presented, applying a social network analysis to a sample of Pacific Alliance start-ups, which were recorded in CrunchBase, considering their operational activities as linkage criteria. In this way, this document offers a new application to social network analysis to demonstrate the need for a different way of classifying start-ups that goes beyond the industry boundaries established by the traditional classification systems. It also shows that Pacific Alliance start-up industries are structured according to a pattern of dominant activity, applied technology and specific use. In addition, there is a concentration on mature or declining start-up industries, while growing industries are left in second order.


A semianalytical solution to the eddy-current induction problem in a conducting, nonmagnetic plate near a cylindrical through-hole is derived by means of the second-order vector potential and the domain truncation technique. The construction of a solution, which simultaneously satisfies the field continuity across the cylindrical surface of the hole and the planar interfaces of the plate, proves to be a very challenging problem, and thus, a special superposition of partial subsolutions is proposed. The presented solution is part of a more general development aiming at the calculation of the probe interaction with material flaws located in the vicinity of the hole by means of the integral equation formalism. These tasks will be the subject of a future paper. The comparison of the semianalytical results against both finite-element simulations as well as experimental data demonstrates excellent agreement.


In hyperpermeable cardiac cells, in which the surface membrane has been made highly permeable to small molecules and ions, resting tension increases when the concentration of ATP falls below 200 microM. Peak resting tension occurs in 10 microM ATP and equals 60% of maximum Ca-activated force in 5 mM ATP. The mitochondria in hyperpermeable cells can maintain an ATP concentration above 200 microM if supplied with O2, substrate, ADP, and inorganic phosphate (Pi). Removal of ATP from the bathing solution does not increase resting tension as long as creatine phosphate is present. However O2, substrate, and Pi cannot lower resting tension in the absence of ATP and creatine phosphate. These results are interpreted as evidence for adenine nucleotide tightly bound to the myofibrils and a creatine phosphate shunt of energy from the mitochondria to the myofibrils.


Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is a clonal myeloproliferative disorder molecularly defined by the BCR-ABL gene and its products. The protein encoded by this chimeric gene is a constitutively activated tyrosine kinase that alters multiple signal transduction pathways inducing malignant transformation. Until recently, treatment options for patients with CML consisted of hydroxyurea, interferon-based therapies or allogeneic stem cell transplantation (alloSCT). Treatment decisions were generally based on the age of the patient and the phase of the disease. Recently, several new therapies have been developed that may change the natural history of CML and patient prognosis. In particular imatinib mesylate (ST1571, Gleevec) an oral Bcr-Abl kinase inhibitor, has demonstrated activity in all phases of CML, and may replace interferon and alloSCT as the initial therapy for this disease. Other agents and therapies with potential value, either alone or in combination, include polyethyleneglycol (PEG) interferon, homoharringtonine, decitabine, oral cytarabine, and growth factor modulation. In this article, we discuss the biological and clinical characteristics of CML, as well as the different therapeutic alternatives for patients with this disorder.


This study uses complexity theory to understand the causal patterns of factors that stimulate students' intention to continue studies in computer science (CS). To this end, it identifies gains and barriers as essential factors in CS education, including motivation and learning performance, and proposes a conceptual model along with research propositions. To test its propositions, the study employs fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis on a data sample from 344 students. Findings indicate eight configurations of cognitive and noncognitive gains, barriers, motivation for studies, and learning performance that explain high intention to continue studies in CS. This research study contributes to the literature by (1) offering new insights into the relationships among the predictors of CS students' intention to continue their studies and (2) advancing the theoretical foundation of how students' gains, barriers, motivation, and learning performance combine to better explain high intentions to continue CS studies.


In May 2000, a distinguished group of scientists and clinicians came together in a one-day meeting to discuss the recent history of peptic ulcer, and its rise and fall. Chaired by Professor Roy Pounder from the Royal Free Hospital, witnesses described their personal experiences, and events that have affected the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of peptic ulcer through the twentieth century. This volume includes an account by Nobel Prize Winner, Sir James Black, of the introduction in the 1970s of the H2 receptor antagonists which added a new dimension to treatment of peptic ulcer disease, and also considers the discovery by Barry Marshall and colleagues of Helicobacter pylori as a causative factor in duodenal and gastric ulcers, which opened up new opportunities in the management of gastrointestinal disorders. Aetiology, therapeutic clinical trials, surgical procedures and advances in gastrointestinal endoscopy are also discussed. Among those who contributed were: Dr John Atherton, Dr Hugh Baron, Sir James Black, Dr Joseph N Blau, Sir Christopher Booth, Mr Roger Celestin, the late Dr Nelson Coghill, Dr Gerard Crean, Dr Booth Danesh, Professor Graham Dockray, Sir Richard Doll, Dr Peter Down, Sir Patrick Forrest, Professor Stewart Goodwin, Dr Jean Guy, Professor Michael Hobsley, Dr Peter Hunter, Dr Belinda Johnston, Professor Roger Jones, Mr Raymond Kirk, Professor Michael Langman, Professor John Lennard-Jones, Dr Robert Logan, Professor Kenneth McColl, Dr George Misiewicz, Professor Timothy Northfield, Professor Colm O'Morain, Dr John Paulley, Professor Robert Steiner, Mr Frank Tovey, Dr David Tyrrell and Dr John Wood.


CREATE RADICAL NEW RIDES WITH THESE OUTLANDISH PROJECTS!,/p>
Want to take your evil talents on the road? Bike, Scooter, and Chopper Projects for the Evil Genius has everything you need to morph your old, unwanted wheels into fabulous, fully functional vehicles. Now you can fuel your artistic side, conserve energy, and get where you need to go with serious attitude!
Dozens of pictures throughout the building process help you create these rad rides, some that you power yourself and some that will propel you for extensive distances with just the push of a button, running on inexpensive power obtained from a wall socket or the sun. Each project can be modified, mixed together, and customized, enabling you to create literally hundreds of new devices-the only limit is your imagination!
Features illustrated instructions and plans for more than 13 highly detailed projects, all of which can be built using easily available parts and a few basic tools. Shows you how to completely dismantle a standard bicycle in order to twist it into something much more evil. Gives you alternative design ideas that leave room for you to mix or change the projects to suit your own evil agenda. Learn new skills and look cool - this book is for everyone with a desire to chop and create. Garage hackers unite!

Regardless of your skill level, Bike, Scooter, and Chopper Projects for the Evil Genius will arm you with the skills you need in order to churn out your very own evil rides. Have a look at what is on our Evil Genius drawing board…
Attitude and Style
Gladiator Chopper Trike Old Skool Attitude The Whipper Snapper

Speed and Comfort
StreetFox Tadpole Trike DeltaWolf Racing Trike Little Warrior Trike

Alternative Transportation
Ucan2 HandCycle SpinCycle Vortex SkyStyle Tallbike

Electric Power
Sparky MiniBike LongRanger Bike Silent Speedster Kids Electric Trike

Table of contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Section One: Getting Started
Project 1. A Complete Bicycle Autopsy
Section Two: Attitude and Style
Project 2. The Gladiator Chopper
Project 3. Old Skool Attitude
Project 4. Whippensnapper
Section Three: Speed and Comfort
Project 5. StreetFox Tadpole Trike
Project 6. DeltaWolf Racing Trike
Project 7. Little Warrior Trike
Section Four: Wild and Crazy Wheels
Project 8. SpinCycle Stunt Trike
Project 9. UCan2 HandCycle
Project 10. SkyStyle Tallbike
Section Five: Electric Power
Project 11. Sparky Minibike
Project 12. LongRanger Scooter
Project 13. Silent Speedster
Project 14. Kids' Electric Trike
Conclusion
Index


Absorbing moisture of electrode coating easily leads to high diffusible hydrogen of welding seam, resulting in hydrogen embrittlement, porosity, cold crack and other defects.Microwave absorption material Fe3O4 is used to promote the reaction of palmitic acid, and reduce the diffusible hydrogen of weld bead. Electrode is immersed to the light petroleum solution containing palmitic and Fe3O4 particles, then the electrode is put into the microwave oven and become water-resistant . The results of FT-IR and SEM indicate that Fe3O4 absorb the microwave and lead to the reaction of palmitic acid and electrode surface. The electrode become water-resistant after microwave reaction, The best ratio of palmitic acid in the petroleum ether is 15%, and the weld diffusible hydrogen decreases to 74%.


We present the design, implementation, and evaluation of an API for applications to control a software-defined network (SDN). Our API is implemented by an OpenFlow controller that delegates read and write authority from the network's administrators to end users, or applications and devices acting on their behalf. Users can then work with the network, rather than around it, to achieve better performance, security, or predictable behavior. Our API serves well as the next layer atop current SDN stacks. Our design addresses the two key challenges: how to safely decompose control and visibility of the network, and how to resolve conflicts between untrusted users and across requests, while maintaining baseline levels of fairness and security. Using a real OpenFlow testbed, we demonstrate our API's feasibility through microbenchmarks, and its usefulness by experiments with four real applications modified to take advantage of it.


The present study examined to what extent an acute bout of hypotension influences blood flow in the external carotid artery (ECA) and the corresponding implications for blood flow regulation in the internal carotid artery (ICA). Nine healthy male participants were subjected to an abrupt decrease in arterial pressure via the thigh-cuff inflation-deflation technique. Duplex ultrasound was employed to measure beat-to-beat ECA and ICA blood flow. Compared with the baseline normotensive control, acute hypotension resulted in a heterogeneous blood flow response. ICA blood flow initially decreased following cuff release and then returned quickly to baseline levels. In contrast, the reduction in ECA blood flow persisted for 30 s following cuff release. Thus, the contribution of common carotid artery blood flow to the ECA circulation decreased during acute hypotension (-10 ± 4%, P < 0.001). This finding suggests that a preserved reduction in ECA blood flow, as well as dynamic cerebral autoregulation likely prevent a further decrease in intracranial blood flow during acute hypotension. The peripheral vasculature of the ECA may, thus, be considered an important vascular bed for intracranial cerebral blood flow regulation.


Existing evidence on the origin times of magnitude M≥7.5 earthquakes worldwide, based on authoritative earthquake catalogs, does not permit rejection of the null hypotheses of random coincidental occurrence at any time during the Earth or the Moon cycles. Specifically, the nonparametric Kuiper test statistics for cyclic variations applied to seismic evidence resulting from the empirical distributions of the M≥7.5 earthquake origin time Julian day (JD) and the Moon phase (MP) do not allow the rejection of the null hypotheses of uniform distributions within the corresponding cycles. On the other hand, the same Kuiper test permits the rejection of the null hypotheses of the same chance of occurrence on any JD or MP for strong magnitude M≥6.0 earthquakes, at least for the past four decades of presumably the best-earthquake determinations and, in particular, for earthquakes in the Northern Hemisphere (with an evident seasonal pattern). The nonparametric two-sample Kolmogorov–Smirnov test statistics suggest no preferred distances to the Moon at the occurrence of large earthquakes. All of this contributes, to the results of solid statistical testing of hypotheses, for a better understanding of the complex seismic response of the Earth's lithosphere to periodic gravitational loading.


In this paper, a remote real-time online rotating machinery monitoring system, which was developed and tested in the Industrial application, is presented including its remote monitoring sub-system, fault diagnosis sub-system. First, the system architecture is introduced. Next, a web-based remote monitoring system is designed, which allows researches and engineers to remotely monitor the health of the machine from any remote geographic location through the Internet. Finally, the holographic spectrum technology in this system is discussed as well for the purpose of providing accurate and reliable diagnosis of the machine states and accident prevention.


In a high level of competitive environment, every business must maintain their customer. This study, therefore, intent to search several variables' effect which is probably able to rise customer satisfaction.The study used several customer of PT PENERBIT ERLANGGA as sample. Data analyze instrument used by the writer is SPSS 17. Data analyze result shows that the research model has well appropriateness and all hypothesis of the study are able to be evidenced. Summary said that personal approach of salesperson, product quality and price are positively effected to customer satisfaction. Based on the result of the study, managerial implication given to the company is suggestion or input to management of PT PENERBIT ERLANGGA to give more concern at the price, as it is the most dominant factor effected to customer satisfaction


Treatment of circadian rhythm disorders, whether precipitated by intrinsic factors (e.g., sleep disorders, blindness, mental disorders, aging) or by extrinsic factors (e.g., shift work, jet-lag) has led to the development of a new type of agents called "chronobiotics". The term "chronobiotic" defines a substance displaying the therapeutic activity of shifting the phase or increasing the amplitude of the circadian rhythms. The prototype of this therapeutic group is melatonin, whose administration synchronizes the sleep-wake cycle in blind people and in individuals suffering from circadian rhythm sleep disorders, like delayed sleep phase syndrome, jet lag or shift-work. Daily melatonin production decreases with age, and in several pathologies, attaining its lowest values in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. About half of dementia patients have severe disruptions in their sleep-wakefulness cycle. Melatonin replacement is effective to treat sundowning and other sleep wake disorders in fully developed AD, although controversial data on this point exist. Indeed, large interindividual differences between patients suffering from AD exist and can explain these erratic results. Theoretically the effect of melatonin could be more consistent at an earlier stage of the disease, i.e., mild cognitive impairment (MCI), an etiologically heterogeneous syndrome that precedes dementia. PubMed was searched using Entrez for articles including clinical trials. Search terms were "Alzheimer" "mild cognitive impairment" and "melatonin". Full publications were obtained and references were checked for additional material where appropriate. Only clinical studies with empirical treatment data were reviewed. Five double blind, randomized placebo-controlled trials and 1 open-label retrospective study (N = 651) all agree in indicating that treatment with daily evening melatonin improves sleep quality and cognitive performance in MCI. The analysis of published evidence and patents indicates that melatonin can be a useful ad-on therapeutic tool in the early phases of AD.


Multi modal images need to be registered in order to use the unique information contained in these different modality images. In this paper, modifications on Scale Invariant Feature Transformation (SIFT), which is a popular method used for image matching, to improve its success on multi modal images are described. SIFT algorithm is immune to linear and partially immune to non-linear illumination changes. However, due to non linear illumination changes on multi-modal images, SIFT is not as powerful as it is on unimodal images. A method that modifies the feature orientations considering the differences of multi modal images is described, and then, the proposed method which works by narrowing the feature descriptor vector orientations is explained.


The University Interscholastic League (UIL) One-Act Play Contest is a competition where similarly sized Texas schools present an 18-40 minute play usually adjudicated by a single judge. At each level of competition the judge awards individual acting awards as well as selecting two productions to advance to the next level of competition. After the awards are announced the judge gives an oral critique to each of the schools. Because of the wide participation and diversity of plays produced, certain rules and guidelines have been adopted to ensure safety, allow for equity, satisfy legal standards, and make the running of the contest practical. These rules can be modified to achieve positive outcomes and improved educational results. Changes in the rules of a UIL contest are in accordance with stated educational objectives of the UIL. Occasionally, however, modifications in procedures raise questions. The problem of this study was to determine, from the perceptions of administrators and teachers, whether significant modifications in the rules and policies for the UIL One-Act Play Contest over a time span of 20 years have had impacts on the goals and procedures of the contest. The study utilized a qualitative approach through historical analysis and a survey to answer two research questions. Historical analysis identified the six modifications in the UIL OAP over the years 1986-2006. The survey instrument determined the impact of these changes on the goals and procedures of the contest. Based on the responses of the survey the competition experience has been enhanced by recent changes.


Seagrass beds provide a range of ecosystem services but are at risk from anthropogenic pressures. While recent progress has been made, the distribution and condition of South Pacific seagrass is relatively poorly known and selecting an appropriate approach for mapping it is challenging. A variety of remote sensing tools are available for this purpose and here we develop a mapping toolbox and associated decision tree tailored to the South Pacific context. The decision tree considers the scale at which data are needed, the reason that monitoring is required, the finances available, technical skills of the monitoring team, data resolution, site safety/accessibility and whether seagrass is predominantly intertidal or subtidal. Satellite mapping is recommended for monitoring at the national and regional scale, with associated ground-reference data where possible but without if time and funds are limiting. At the local scale, satellite, remotely piloted aircraft (RPA), kites, underwater camera systems and in situ surveys are all recommended. In the special cases of community-based initiatives and emergency response monitoring, in situ or satellite/RPA are recommended, respectively. For other types of monitoring the primary driver is funding, with in situ, kite and satellite recommended when finances are limited and satellite, underwater camera, RPA or kites otherwise, dependent on specific circumstances. The tools can be used individually or in combination, though caution is recommended when combining tools due to data comparability.


Dynamic compressive tests of plain concrete specimens (C30 and C40) are carried out on MTS, with the uniaxial strain rate ranging from 10-5/s to 10-2/s. The impacts of strain rates on concrete strength are studied systematically. The mechanical properties of compressive strength, elastic modulus and compressive stress-strain curve of concrete under different stain rates are also analyzed. The experiental relationships between strain rate and compressive strength of concrete are established. It is found that the compressive strength of concrete increases with the strain rate increasing. Modulus is also showing a growth trend, but the growth rate varies greatly; and the stress-strain curve under dynamic loads is similar to the one under static loads. These research achievements can provide us with a more accurate grasp of concrete actual working conditions and provide some guidance to structural design of concrete. These are important to build the dynamic damage constitutive models, too.


Two experiments were conducted to determine whether milking beef cows two or five times daily in the presence or absence of their own nonsuckling calves would alter postpartum interval to first ovulation. Multiparous Angus x Hereford cow-calf pairs were assigned randomly between 13 and 18 d postpartum to treatments for 4 wk. In Exp. 1, pairs were assigned to six treatments: 1) calf was weaned permanently from its dam (CW; n = 9); 2) same as CW, but dam was milked twice daily (CW+2xM; n = 9); 3) calf was present continuously with its dam but restricted from contact with the udder (CR; n = 9); 4) same as CR, but dam was milked twice daily (CR+2xM; n = 9); 5) same as CR, but calf was allowed to suckle twice daily (CR+2xS; n = 8); and 6) calf was present continuously with its dam and suckled ad libitum (CP; n = 9). The interval from onset of treatments to first postpartum ovulation was shorter (P<.05) in the CW (14.1+/-3.1 d), CR (14.2+/-3.1 d), CW+2xM (13.0+/-3.1 d), and CR+2xM (17.2+/-3.1 d) than in the CP (34.7+/-3.1 d) and CR+2xS (33.9+/-3.3 d) treatments. Daily milk yield during treatment was greater (P<.01) for CR+2xM cows (7.1+/-.6 kg) than for CW+2xM cows (3.5+/-.6 kg). In Exp. 2, cow-calf pairs were assigned to three treatments: 1) CR+2xM (n = 10); 2) same as CR+2xM but cows were milked five times daily (CR+5xM; n = 10); or 3) CP (n = 10). The interval to first postpartum ovulation was shorter (P<.05) in the CR+2xM (23.6+/-3.5 d) and CR+5xM (26.1+/-3.7 d) treatments than in the CP (37.7+/-3.7 d) treatment. Daily milk yield during treatment was greater (P<.05) for CR+5xM cows (7.7+/-.6 kg) than for CR+2xM cows (6.4+/-.6 kg) by 17%. We conclude that suckling twice daily was sufficient to prolong postpartum anestrus as much as suckling ad libitum. Furthermore, milk removal by suckling, but not by milking two or five times daily, even in the presence of the cow's own nonsuckling calf, is essential to prolong postpartum anovulation.


The knowledge of subnuclear localization in eukaryotic cells is indispensable for under-standing the biological function of nucleus, genome regulation and drug discovery. In this study, a new feature representation was pro-posed by combining position specific scoring matrix (PSSM) and auto covariance (AC). The AC variables describe the neighboring effect between two amino acids, so that they incorpo-rate the sequence-order information; PSSM de-scribes the information of biological evolution of proteins. Based on this new descriptor, a support vector machine (SVM) classifier was built to predict subnuclear localization. To evaluate the power of our predictor, the benchmark dataset that contains 714 proteins localized in nine subnuclear compartments was utilized. The total jackknife cross validation ac-curacy of our method is 76.5%, that is higher than those of the Nuc-PLoc (67.4%), the OET- KNN (55.6%), AAC based SVM (48.9%) and ProtLoc (36.6%). The prediction software used in this article and the details of the SVM parameters are freely available at http://chemlab.scu.edu.cn/ predict_SubNL/index.htm and the dataset used in our study is from Shen and Chou's work by downloading at http://chou.med.harvard.edu/ bioinf/Nuc-PLoc/Data.htm.


In the present study, we fabricated high purity and electrically machinable Ti3SiC2 ceramics by mechanical alloying and subsequent spark plasma sintering. The effect of a trace amount of Al on these synthesis processes was examined. Our results showed that Ti3SiC2 could be synthesized by high energy milling. Spark plasma sintering of mechanically alloyed powder at the temperatures of 1000-1200°C produced nearly single-phased Ti3SiC2 materials. The purity of the sintered Ti3SiC2 bulk was remarkably increased by addition of a small amount of Al. Ti3SiC2 with a purity of 99.3 wt% and a relative density of 98.9% was obtained by mechanical alloying and subsequent spark plasma sintering from a starting mixture composed of n(Ti) : n(Si) : n(Al) : n(c) = 3 : 1 : 0.2 : 2 at 1100°C.


Abstract As media is becoming more influential in the era of new media, the impact and the power of celebrities of stage and screen have become greater than ever. Gradually, consumers tend to make their purchase decisions based on the symbolic and imagery aspects rather than substantial use of a product. Thus, popularity, affinity, and image of celebrities have a great impact on consumers so that wide range of consumers can be effectively led to mass purchase (The Korea Economic Daily, 2006). Accordingly, media is fully utilized not only as a direct commercial medium, but also as a vehicle for the spread of fashion trend via celebrities. Thus, a 'star marketing' strategy is fully activated and many celebrities not only promote brand awareness, but also stimulate consumer desires with sponsorship brands. In addition, face-saving Korean culture encourages the growth of public interests towards celebrity sponsorship brands. However, researches that examined the social and psychological factors of conforming and imitating behavior of celebrity products are limited. This research considered celebrity conformity as a variable that explains consumer imitating behavior in the luxury-fashion industry and examined whether consumer's celebrity conformity level affects the purchase intention of celebrity sponsorship brand. Furthermore, this research also attempted to analyze the moderating effects of symbolic consumption and face-saving, which are regarded as influential consumer characteristics in luxury-fashion product consumption behavior. The test results showed that celebrity conformity had a positive effect on the purchase intention of celebrity sponsorship brand, thus, hypothesis 1 was supported. In addition, this research further analyzed the impact of the three sub-dimensions of celebrity conformity on the purchase intention of celebrity sponsorship brand. The results demonstrated that self-conformity and style-conformity positively (+) influenced the purchase intention of celebrity sponsorship brand. However, interest-conformity did not have any significant effect. This research also examined the difference between teen agers and adults. Both groups showed positive impact of conformity on purchase intentions. However, there was a difference in the effects of the three sub-dimensions of conformity. First, in teenagers' responses, only interest-conformity did not have an effect on the purchase intention of celebrity sponsorship brands but self and style-conformity had a significant influence on the purchase intention (p<0.01). On the other hand, for adult respondents, both interest and self-conformity did not have an impact on the purchase intention and only style-conformity had a significant influence (p<0.01). In case of moderating effect, there was no significant interaction between celebrity conformity and symbolic consumption, thereby hypothesis 2 was rejected. This result indicates that the effect of the celebrity conformity on the purchase behavior is not influenced by symbolic consumption. However, symbolic consumption showed a significant effect on purchase intention of celebrity sponsorship brand. This indicates that even though symbolic consumption does not interact with celebrity conformity, symbolic consumption increases purchase of celebrity sponsorship brand. On the other hand, there was a significant interaction between celebrity conformity and face-saving, thus hypothesis 3 was supported. Face-saving also had a significant impact on purchase intention of sponsorship brand. The interaction of celebrity conformity and face-saving demonstrated a negative direction, which may have an interesting indication. Short interviews in the pretest showed that many of the respondents like celebrities and have experience in imitating what they did and wore. However, they feel a strong sense of embarrassment and resistance once their conforming behaviors are recognized by others. This indicates that people may have another dimension of face-saving (conscious of others/social surroundings) that is not wanting to be known as a 'celebrity imitator' by purchasing celebrity sponsorship brands. An additional analysis was conducted to examine the differences between the teenager and adult respondents. It was found that the relationship between celebrity conformity and symbolic consumption did not show a significant interaction in both groups. However, in case of adults, while interaction between celebrity conformity and symbolic consumption was not significant, there was a significant main effect of symbolic consumption on the purchase intention of celebrity sponsorship brand. This shows a stronger tendency of adults to display their ability, status, and taste by celebrity sponsorship brands. This research has the following theoretical contributions. First, the present research identified sub-dimensions of celebrity conformity, which was thought to be a single behavioral construct in the previous researches. In addition, even though most of preexisting studies explained the influence of celebrities on individual consumption behavior with mere celebrity endorsement concept, this research expanded the scope of academic inquiry by introducing the concept of celebrity conformity. Furthermore, the findings of the present research particularly have many practical implications for the luxury and fashion/luxury brands. TV commercials are not the primary source for the marketing of fashion industry, and therefore, using celebrities as a marketing tool will be beneficial in terms of fit and visibility since a well-chosen celebrity may enhance brand awareness, may promote brand status and may effectively reinforce as well as create an image for a product/brand. Moreover, such indirect advertisements and promotions can be more powerful than direct and hard sell advertising for the luxury and fashion/luxury brands. The limitations of the present research are as follows: First, the age of the sample was not evenly distributed. Therefore, the future research should include a sample of wider age distribution. Second, this research examined the moderating roles of symbolic consumption and face-saving under the assumption of no interaction between them. However, the future research needs to explore the relationship between them. Third, the generalizability of this study is limited because it used a sample of single country. The future research may include and compare samples from diverse countries.


Introduction: Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) has been a non-chemical effective method in reducing pain. The mechanism of TENS is not clear but gate control theory may explain it. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the analgesic effect of TENS on the post cesarean section pain. Materials & Methods: In a randomized clinical trial, in the year 2006, at Oncology Ward of Kerman Afzalipur Hospital 72 women with cesarean delivery, participated in this study and were assigned randomly to two groups. For the TENS group (36 patients) TENS was applied and for the control group (36 patients), placebo TENS. Intensity of pain before and after interventions was assessed by visual analogue scale (VAS). Also the first request of analgesic by the patient was compared between the two groups. The individual, and VAS results were collected in a questionnaire, analyzed by SPSS, and statistical tests Results: The mean scores of pain for TENS group and control group were 3.78 ± 1.72 and 6.61 ± 2.11 respectively (p=0.0001). There was a significant statistical difference (p=0.0001), between the different mean scores for TENS group (2.25) and control group (0.22). Reducing pain in the TENS group and control group were 91 and16.6 respectively )p=0.0001). Conclusion: This study demonstrated that, using the postoperative TENS can reduce the intensity of pain and it can also, be an effective and safe method in controlling the pain of patients with cesarean section.


Computer controlled systems are almost omnipresent nowadays. We expect such systems to function properly at any time we need them. The malfunctioning of home electronics just irritates us, but glitches in a car, power plant or medical support system may threaten life, and faults in nuclear missile control facility may bring the end to civilisation. Such ubiquity of computer based control puts very high reliability requirements on such systems.
Hybrid systems combine continuous real-time behaviour and discrete events. Research in hybrid systems aims at providing means for reliable design and production of hybrid systems. In this thesis we explore the world of hybrid systems. We acknowledge relevance and complexity of hybrid systems research, and emphasise several
different research topics: modelling, analysis, testing and deployment of hybrid systems.


Due to the SAR 1 geometry imaging, SAR images include geometric distortions that would be erroneous image information and the images should be geometrically calibrated. As the radar systems are side looking, geometric distortion such as shadow, foreshortening and layover are occurred. To compensate these geometric distortions, information about sensor position, imaging geometry and target altitude from ellipsoid should be available. In this paper, a method for geometric calibration of SAR images is proposed. The method uses Range-Doppler equations. In this method, for the image georeferencing, the DEM 2 of SRTM with 30m pixel size is used and also exact ephemeris data of the sensor is required. In the algorithm proposed in this paper, first digital elevation model transmit to range and azimuth direction. By applying this process, errors caused by topography such as foreshortening and layover are removed in the transferred DEM. Then, the position of the corners on original image is found base on the transferred DEM. Next, original image registered to transfer DEM by 8 parameters projective transformation. The output is the georeferenced image that its geometric distortions are removed. The advantage of the method described in this article is that it does not require any control point as well as the need to attitude and rotational parameters of the sensor. Since the ground range resolution of used images are about 30m, the geocoded images using the method described in this paper have an accuracy about 20m (subpixel) in planimetry and about 30m in altimetry. 1 Synthetic Aperture Radar 2 Digital Elevation Model


Identification of compounds distinguishing between NAD+ and ATP-dependent ligases is a key factor to discover new antimicrobials. Based on virtual screening experiments a series of hydroxamates distinguishing between the above two classes of enzymes are synthesized. The specificity of the compounds for the bacterial LigA was tested in vivo involving a temperature sensitive LigA deficient E. coli GR501 strain rescued with the M. tuberculosis LigA (MtuLigA) and a wild type S. typhimurium and its LigA-strain rescued with T4 ligase. The compounds exhibit similar specificity for the NAD+-dependent ligases. In vitro assays involving the MtuLigA and the human DNA ligase I enzymes show that two compounds are ∼8-fold specific at low μM concentrations. Ethidium bromide displacement assays indicate that the compounds do not exhibit general interactions with DNA. The overall study suggests that hydroxamates have the potential to be developed as novel antibacterials.


HIV/AIDS has always been one of the most thoroughly global of diseases. The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a lent virus that causes HIV infection and AIDS. AIDS is a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening infections and cancers to thrive. Infection with HIV occurs by the transfer of blood, semen, vaginal fluid, breast milk. Within these bodily fluids, HIV is present as both free virus particles and virus within infected immune cells. HIV infects vital cells in the human immune system such as helper CD4 T cells, macrophages. HIV infection leads to low levels of T cells through a number of mechanisms, including pyroptosis of infected T cells. The symptoms of AIDS are primarily the result of conditions that do not normally develop in individuals with healthy immune systems. Most of these conditions are opportunistic infections caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites that are normally controlled by the elements of the immune system that HIV damages. When condoms are used consistently by a couple in which one person is infected, the rate of HIV infection is less than 1% per year. There is some evidence to suggest that female condoms may provide an equivalent level of protection.


In 1942, Mao Zedong's Talks at the Yan'an Conference on Literature and Art opened a new era in the development of Chinese literature. Through the brief description of the translation and spread of Yan'an literature in foreign countries, especially in Japan, Russia, the former Soviet Union and United States, the paper aims to outline the status of the Yan'an literature throughout the world, in order to emphasize the particular importance of Yan'an literature, to understand the relevant research status quo, therefore providing practical suggestions for future research.


In their editorial, Hollis et al 1 focus on the third of three digital revolutions – access to real-time patient data ('connected health') – but also highlight the benefits of the first two revolutions – unlocking value in electronic medical records and new forms of access that allow patients direct control. How far have the first two digital revolutions embedded benefits for patient care in mental health? The first revolution (word-processing, from the 1960s) allowed people with little training to prepare, edit and duplicate high-quality documents. The second comes with the internet: ability to access, transmit, share and edit these documents. From these two revolutions, what can patients (and carers and professionals) expect as the outputs of the mental health IT system? A basic expectation is that, before every face to-face clinical encounter, the IT system can easily deliver an accurate background history, account of recent treatment, and up-to-date care plan. (This list could be extended to include a summary history, complete history, and non-stigmatising vulnerability and risk history.) The safety of these documents is assured by accessibility (so that they are used and reviewed often) and accuracy (confirmed by patients and carers). They must be easily readable, to be safely understood, and actually used (as unread documents do not convey information). The quality of these 'output' documents must convey respect for patients, carers and professionals and the interactions between them. For patients and carers, documents summarising core parts of their present or past lives must carry real-world acceptability in appearance and structure. Clinical staff able to take pride in their documentation (being clear, respectful, accurate and useful) will welcome sharing them with patients, carers and other professionals. Finally (as in the ordinary world) the IT system should save time for professionals (and patients and carers), freeing up treatment time. Simple IT technology can deliver this for professionals, patients and carers. Hollis et al 1 note that mental health patients' use of technology is similar to the general UK population, with three-quarters of adults accessing the internet daily, half via a smart phone. I have only anecdotal knowledge of how far mental health IT is delivering the benefits of the first two revolutions. Hollis et al 1 summarise key challenges for the third revolution in connected health: 'first, ensuring that patients and their needs remain at the centre of technology development and implementation; second, rapidly increasing the evidence base for …


Because calcium was found to be antagonistic in vitro to the activity of colistin and polymyxin B on Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the effects of calcium and serum on gentamicin and carbenicillin were also examined. Serum was antagonistic to gentamicin in antibiotic tube dilution tests on five strains of P. aeruginosa. Serum was not antagonistic to carbenicillin in tube dilution tests. Physiologic concentrations of calcium antagonized the activity of gentamicin but not carbenicillin. The antagonism observed with gentamicin was less than that previously seen with colistin. The antagonistic effect of calcium and serum was removed by a chelating agent. Gentamicin and carbenicillin may be more active in vivo against P. aeruginosa than colistin or polymyxin B.


Cattle feeders want feeder cattle that have been weaned and preconditioned with a certified health program. Preconditioned calves perform more efficiently in the feedlot with lower morbidity and mortality. Health program claims, however, range from no claim to being USDA-certified. The value of health protocol certification may vary with certifying entity. Results from a choice experiment and survey of cattle feeders indicate preconditioning programs that include weaning, vaccinating against respiratory and clostridial/blackleg, and treating for parasites are worth on average $7.28/cwt to feedlots. Furthermore, a health program certified by USDA carries an additional value of $2.37/cwt on average.


We consider the problem of segmenting an image into foreground and background, with foreground containing solely objects of interest known a priori. We propose an integration model that incorporates both edge detection and object part detection results. It consists of two parallel processes: low-level pixel grouping and high-level patch grouping. We seek a solution that optimizes a joint grouping criterion in a reduced space enforced by grouping correspondence between pixels and patches. Using spectral graph partitioning, we show that a near global optimum can be found by solving a constrained eigenvalue problem. We report promising experimental results on a dataset of 15 objects under clutter and occlusion.


Hashimoto's encephalopathy (HE), which is occasionally associated with chronic thyroiditis (Hashimoto's disease), presents with a variety of neurologic and neuropsychiatric features. We investigated the clinical features and treatments in 80 cases of HE with serum anti-NH(2)-terminal of α-enolase [anti-NAE] autoantibodies, a useful diagnostic marker of this disease. The acute encephalopathy form was the most common clinical phenotype (58%), followed by chronic psychiatric form (17%), cerebellar ataxic form (16%), and other forms such as Creutzfeltd-Jakob disease (CJD)-like form and limbic encephalitis. The common neuropsychiatric features were consciousness disturbance (66%), psychosis (53%) and dementia (38%). Involuntary movements (31%, tremor or myoclonus), seizures (31%) or ataxia (28%) occasionally occurred. Abnormalities on EEG (80%) were common while abnormalities on brain MRI were relatively rare (36%). On the treatments for HE, steroid therapy was most usually applied and successful. Intravenous immunoglobulin therapy or plasma exchange was successfully applied for the treatment of HE in some cases of HE. Taken together, we should be aware of the possibility of HE for early diagnosis and treatment of this disease.


In the 1920's concern about the rising number of disabled unemployed urban poor led to the founding of the AVO (Dutch organization for labour care for the disabled) in 1927. The AVO presented the problem of the vulnerability of the physically and mentally disabled in the labour market as a matter of collective responsibility. At the Amsterdam AVO congress of 1928 expert contributors discussed the economic, social and medical aspects of disability and work. Simultaneously, a museum exhibition aimed at arousing the interest of the general public and at promoting a more understanding attitude towards the disabled. Though the twofold AVO manifestation raised an immediate favourable general response and the subject was put on the political agenda, the subsequent economic recession and war forestalled concrete measures. Essentially it was the first public debate on disability in the Netherlands.


Deep generative models are known to be able to model arbitrary probability distributions. Among these, a recent deep generative model, dubbed sliceGAN, proposed a new way of using the generative adversarial network (GAN) to capture the micro-structural characteristics of a two-dimensional (2D) slice and generate three-dimensional (3D) volumes with similar properties. While 3D micrographs are largely beneficial in simulating diverse material behavior, they are often much harder to obtain than their 2D counterparts. Hence, sliceGAN opens up many interesting directions of research by learning the representative distribution from 2D slices, and transferring the learned knowledge to generate arbitrary 3D volumes. However, one limitation of sliceGAN is that latent space steering is not possible. Hence, we combine sliceGAN with AdaIN to endow the model with the ability to disentangle the features and control the synthesis.


We theoretically investigate the generation of spatial patterns in intracavity second-harmonic generation. We consider a cavity with planar mirrors that is resonant at the fundamental frequency, but not at the secondharmonic frequency. A mean-field model is derived that describes the resonant fundamental field, and its coupling to a pair of nondegenerate parametric fields. The parametric fields are driven by the nonresonant second-harmonic field. Analysis indicates the existence of transverse instability of the pump field alone, as well as the possibility of simultaneous instability of the pump and the parametric fields. A range of spatial structures including periodic planforms as well as spatially localized states are found numerically. The simplicity of the singly resonant cavity makes it well suited for experimental studies. Estimates of experimental parameters necessary for observation of spatial structures are given. @S1050-2947~99!02810-3#


Aerosol optical tweezers are used to simultaneously characterize and compare the hygroscopic properties of two aerosol droplets, one containing inorganic and organic solutes and the second, referred to as the control droplet, containing a single inorganic salt. The inorganic solute is either sodium chloride or ammonium sulfate and the organic component is glutaric acid. The time variation in the size of each droplet (3-7 microm in radius) is recorded with 1 s time resolution and with nanometre accuracy. The size of the control droplet is used to estimate the relative humidity with an accuracy of better than +/-0.09%. Thus, the Kohler curve of the multicomponent inorganic/organic droplet, which characterizes the variation in equilibrium droplet size with relative humidity, can be determined directly. The measurements presented here focus on high relative humidities, above 97%, in the limit of dilute solutes. The experimental data are compared with theoretical treatments that, while ignoring the interactions between the inorganic and organic components, are based upon accurate representations of the activity-concentration relationships of aqueous solutions of the individual salts. The organic component is treated by a parametrized fit to experimental data or by the UNIFAC model and the water activity of the equilibrium solution droplet is calculated using the approach suggested by Clegg, Seinfeld and Brimblecombe or the Zdanovskii-Stokes-Robinson approximation. It is shown that such an experimental strategy, comparing directly droplets of different composition, enables highly accurate measurements of the hygroscopic properties, allowing the theoretical treatments to be rigorously tested. Typical deviations of the experimental measurements from theoretical predictions are shown to be around 1% in equilibrium size, comparable to the variation between the theoretical frameworks considered.


Litter decomposition is essential for the cycling of elements in ecosystems. How carbon
(C) and nitrogen (N) interact during litter decomposition is, however, not yet fully
understood. This thesis studies litter decomposition with the aim of increasing our
understanding of the interactions between C and N. The areas in focus are litter
mixtures, mycorrhizal fungi, and various N:C ratios.

The decomposition rate of litter mixtures can differ from that expected on the basis
of the decomposition rate of the single components. This thesis shows that changed
decomposition rates in litter mixtures can be linked to a transfer of N between the
litters.

Besides the typical decomposers, the saprotrophs, also mycorrhizal fungi can
decompose organic matter. This thesis explores how mycorrhizal fungi interact with
their plant partner under different N availabilities to modify the C and N dynamics of
the plant and in the soil. The results indicate that in order to understand how
decomposition is influenced by a changing N availability, we need an increased
understanding of the decomposer ability of the mycorrhizal fungi and the plant–fungus
relation in mycorrhizal associations.

It is problematic to estimate the parameters describing the relation between C and N
during decomposition. This thesis shows that the key parameter to estimate is the
critical N:C ratio, i.e. the litter N:C ratio at which N immobilisation switches to
mineralisation.


We aimed to create reference equations for FeNO, from a sample of healthy individuals with no respiratory diseases. We selected healthy adults from a population-based sample, included in the national study ICAR – Control and Burden of Asthma and Rhinitis (PTDC/SAU-SAP/119192/2010, funded by Fundacao Ciencia e Tecnologia). Healthy was defined as absence of asthma or COPD, with FEV1/FVC ≥ 0.7. Atopy was defined by positive skin prick tests and smoking status with exhaled CO levels. FeNO was measured with NIOX MINO (Aerocrine AB, Sweden). Reference equations were modeled using stepwise multiple linear regression for the dependent variable ln(FeNO). The independent variables included in the models were gender, age, standing height, atopy and smoking status. Models with and without atopy were computed. We9ve included 147 healthy adults (59% females) with mean (SD) age of 44.8 (16) years being 20% active smokers and 31% atopic. Median (min-max) FeNO was 15.0 (5-57) ppb. Significant variables included were height, age, atopy and smoking status, but not gender. The best reference equation was ln (FeNO) = -0.737 + height (cm) * 0.019 + Age (years) * 0.007 + Atopy (1-Yes, 0-No) * 0.235 + Smoking status (1-Smoker, 0-Never-smoker or Ex-smoker) * -0.518, with an R2= 0.259. The reference equation without atopy was ln (FeNO) = -0.238 + height (cm) * 0.0197+ Age (years) * 0.006 + Smoking status (1-Smoker, 0- Never-smoker or Ex-smoker) * -0.465 with an R2= 0.192. The highest proportion of explained FeNO variability in healthy adults was given by the reference equation with atopy (the highest to the best of our knowledge). For easier inclusion in clinical practice, we also propose a reference equation without atopy evaluation.


Distributed fiber optic sensing systems use long section of optical fiber as the sensing media. Therefore, the fiber characteristics determines the sensing capability and performance. In this presentation, various types of specialty optical fibers and their sensing applications will be introduced and discussed.


Phencyclidine use appears to be in a growth phase nationally. Factors contributing to the increasing popularity include the user's ability to control the dosage, an understanding of the immediate effects, and its availability. Those most at risk appear to be young Caucasian males. Phencyclidine-related problems are often like tips of icebergs, the underlying causes of which are hidden from public view. The problems often surface in the form of speech difficulties, memory loss, thinking disorders, personality changes, paranoia, severe depression, violence, accidents, suicides and homicides. Of particular concern to law enforcement personnel is the upsurge in phencyclidine-related violent crimes and carrying of weapons by users to protect themselves from their imagined persecutors. The evidence currently available supports the assumption that if there is a solution to the problem of phencyclidine abuse, that solution is prevention. Therefore, medical personnel and others within the helping professions must be alerted to the fact that phencyclidine is not just another drug problem. The findings from users we have already studied strongly suggest that phencyclidine is not an "upper" or a "downer," but perhaps an "insideouter", with longer term implications. Language: en


Cement is the essential construction material for making concrete which provide good binding among aggregates and also provide high strength. But cement releases high amount of CO 2 during manufacture. In order to reduce the environmental menace and also to enhance the property of concrete  Palm ash based concrete are used. Palm ash based concrete containing palm ash as partial cement substitute. The partial replacement percentages are 10%, 20%, 30%. In this investigations properties such as compressive strength and durability strength of palm ash based concrete and conventional concrete are find out. Results are tabulated and discussed. The palm ash based concrete properties are also compared with the conventional concrete. The palm ash based concrete is very economical and also eco friendly concrete.


Sustainability and accountability are pervasive issues for social entrepreneurial non-profit organisations (NPOs), which are also known as social enterprises as they seek to balance their social mission with financial responsibility. With the increased in the scope and size of the social enterprise, there is also increased need for accountability and organisational sustainability. Thus, in order to successfully fulfil these needs, social enterprises need to identify the relevant factors of sustainability that relates closely with accountability and organisational performance. This study aims to examine the extent social enterprise's sustainability based on the factors identified using self-constructed sustainability index. The four main factors are leadership capacity, adaptive capacity, management and technical capacity and financial viability. Content analysis was used to measure the sustainability index from the information disclosed in the annual reports by 210 organisations registered under the Registry of Societies (ROS) in Malaysia for the year 2010. Findings from the study indicates that most of the social enterprises are aware that effective leadership is vital for organisational sustainability. However, management and technical aspects tend to be neglected possibly due to lack of adequate resources and facilities to adapt to current changes. Overall, this study highlights that in order to survive in the future, the social enterprise need to appropriately address relevant factors that influence financial accountability and organisational sustainability especially on management and technical aspect in order to survive in the future.


This paper shows that it is possible to track the changes in the distribution of power within a couple by focusing on the changes in the pattern of private consumption when the consumption decisions are efficient and private consumption is separable from public consumption in individual preferences. We first show that the separability of private consumption from public consumption at the individual level carries over to the household level. Hence, changes in public consumption only matters through a change in the residual budget available for private consumption. When the consumption decisions within the household is efficient, private consumption decisions can be modeled as the solution of a problem consisting in maximizing a weighted sum of the private-consumption sub-utility functions of the spouses under the residual budget, the weights being unique and representing the distribution of power over the allocation of private consumption. The model presented in this paper can be used to analyze the changes in the household resource allocation due to, for example, childbirth.


INTRODUCTION
Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is a hyperendemic region of Russian Federation for spreading of parenteral viral hepatitis B, C and D. In risk groups of these diseases are firstly medical personnel, who contacting with infection carriers including latent infections family and members of families of chronic viral hepatitis carriers.

AIM
To reveal the breadth of spreading of viral hepatitis markers in the risk groups.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The level of HBV- and HC- infection were determined in medical staff of large multi specialty hospital and family members of people with viral hepatitis B and C. Epidemiological, clinical, serological and molecular biology methods of viral hepatitis diagnostics were applied in this study.

RESULTS
Results of this study showed that the staff at surgery and hematology departments and all nursing staff belong to the high-risk of HBV-infection groups. Therefore, they are a priority for active immunization. Attention is paid on the fact that infectivity of medical staff is not equally distributed in dependence on type of department and position of medical staff. Rate HBV-marker detecting in "family hearths" was dependent on degree of interrelationship with infection source. According received information, in families of patientwith chronic hepatitis B spreading of infection was higher (77.6%) then in families of patients with acute hepatitis B (39.7%). At primary examination of families an anti-HCV was detected in 9.3 ± 1.8% cases, i.e. the spreading of HCV was at low-activity.

CONCLUSIONS
Results of our study on spreading of hepatitis B and C in Yakutia showed the high rate of appearance of HCV and HBV markers in the risk groups.


ABSTRACT Background Developing, monitoring, and reporting of fidelity are essential and integral components to the design of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in stroke and aphasia. Treatment fidelity refers to the degree to which an intervention is delivered as intended and is directly related to the quality of the evidence generated by RCTs. Clear documentation of treatment fidelity in trials assists in the evaluation of the clinical implications of potential benefits attributed to the intervention. Consideration of the implementation requirements of a research-based intervention as intended in a clinical context is necessary to achieve similar outcomes for a clinical population. Despite this, treatment fidelity is rarely reported in RCTs of aphasia intervention. Aim To describe fidelity strategies and develop core recommendations for developing, monitoring, and reporting of fidelity in aphasia intervention RCTs. Scope Relevant conceptual frameworks were considered. The Behaviour Change Consortium comprehensive framework of fidelity was adopted. It includes five areas: study design, training providers, delivery of treatment, treatment receipt, and treatment enactment. We explored fidelity in RCTs with a range of complex aphasia interventions (e.g., ASK, Big CACTUS, COMPARE, FCET2EC, POLAR, SUPERB, and VERSE) and described how different trial design factors (e.g., phase of trial, explanatory vs. pragmatic, number and location of sites, and number and type of treatment providers) influenced the fidelity strategies chosen. Strategies were mapped onto the five areas of the fidelity framework with a detailed exploration of how fidelity criteria were developed, measured, and monitored throughout each trial. This information was synthesised into a set of core recommendations to guide aphasia researchers towards the adequate measurement, capture, and reporting of fidelity within future aphasia intervention studies. Conclusions/Recommendations Treatment fidelity should be a core consideration in planning an intervention trial, a concept that goes beyond treatment adherence alone. A range of strategies should be selected depending on the phase and design of the trial being undertaken and appropriate investment of time and costs should be considered.


This article discusses a case of osteochondroma suffered by a female patient. The typical clinical and radiographic signs and symptoms are presented. Osteochondromas may be pedunculated or sessile. Malignant transformation ranges from 1% for solitary lesions to 20% for hereditary multiple exostoses. If transformation occurs, chondrosarcoma usually develops. Most lesions are asymptomatic and require no treatment.


The thrust profiles of solid rocket motors are usually determined ahead of time by propellant composition and grain design. Traditional techniques for active thrust modulation use a moveable pintle to dynamically change the nozzle throat diameter, increasing the chamber pressure and therefore thrust. With this approach, high chamber pressures must be endured with only modest increases in thrust. Alternatively, it has been shown that spinning a solid rocket motor on its longitudinal axis can increase the burning rate of the propellant and therefore the thrust without the resulting high chamber pressures. Building on prior experience modelling pressure-dependent, low-dependent and acceleration-dependent burning in solid rocket motors, an internal ballistic simulation computer program is modified for the present study where the use of the pintle nozzle and spin-augmented solid rocket motor combustion approaches, for a reference cylindrical-grain motor, are compared. This study confirms that comparable thrust augmentation can be gained at lower chamber pressures using the novel spin-acceleration approach, relative to the established pintle-nozzle approach, thus potentially providing a significant design advantage.


This paper summarizes a strategy for development of an EDA (Electronic Design Automation) tool which is aimed to support the design of future nano-circuits. The problem with the existing EDA tools is that they do not explicitly consider reliability as a design criterion. Most of the tools that do consider reliability are not intended for the nanoelectronic industry and are very limited in the types of failure models they can assess. Moreover, current indications show that moving towards nano-scale will significantly increase the failure rates. It follows that an improved EDA tool which would efficiently assess reliability (besides speed, power, area, etc.) is becoming a necessity. In this paper we detail a strategy and its methods that could ultimately lead to an EDA tool for realistic reliability evaluation of nano-circuits.


To ensure the safety and functionality of a railroad bridge, maintaining the integrity of the bridge via continuous structural health monitoring is important. However, most structural integrity monitoring methods proposed to date are based on modal responses which require the extracting process and have limited availability. In this paper, the applicability of the existing damage identification method based on free-vibration reponses to time-domain deflection shapes due to moving train load is investigated. Since the proposed method directly utilizes the time-domain responses of the structure due to the moving vehicles, the extracting process for modal responses can be avoided, and the applicability of structural health evaluation can be enhanced. The feasibility of the presented method is verified via a numerical example of a simple plate girder bridge.


A new electron trapping materials (ETM) SrS: Eu2+, Dy3+, which was prepared by the method of high temperature solid-state reaction. The results indicate that both ultraviolet light and visible light can be used as exciting source to store energy. After exposed under ultraviolet, the sample was stimulated by 980nm laser. As a result, an obvious luminescence at 615 nm was detected. The up-conversion emission spectrum was found to be a continuous broadband spectrum resulted from the multi-transitions of Eu2+ 4f6→4f7 (8S7/2). The emission peak intensity of SrS: Eu2+, Dy3+ was stronger than SrS: Eu2+.


The Veganic Agriculture Network is a young organization with limited resources. We have a small budget to cover website costs, transportation expenses, and to develop materials to promote veganic growing. As our financing grows, so can our network, bringing more opportunities to develop and distribute materials and do public outreach. All donations are much appreciated. (...)


The aim of this study was to analyse the effects of manipulating the size and contour of the visual field on the accuracy of an aiming task. Subjects were required to perform pointing movements without seeing their moving hand. The target was displayed in either a wide structured visual field (control condition), a narrow visual field with orthogonal frame, or a narrow visual field with circular frame. The visual information surrounding the target was always provided prior to movement onset, but during the execution of the movement on only half of the trials. Overall, the results showed that undershooting was a common performance characteristic in all of the conditions. In comparison to the control performance, an increase of the degree of undershoot was found when the target was displayed inside a narrower visual field. An additional radial error was found when the contour of the visual scene was circular, but only when the visual context was available during the movement. The same pattern of results was observed for variable error. However, angular errors were not found to vary over the different conditions. Overall, the findings suggested that the visual context contributed to the assessment of the target locations, and the subsequent motor programming. Furthermore, visual information aided the on-line control of the unseen hand, but the extent of this was dependent on the size and shape of the frame denoting the visual scene. Finally, in the absence of any unexpected perturbation, the en-route amendment of the arm trajectory, based on visual information processing, seemed to be more related to distance than azimuth control.


Background In-patients receiving palliative care may lack capacity to make decisions regarding their medical treatment for many reasons e.g. delirium, dementia. If it is felt that a person cannot consent to treatment an Adults with Incapacity (AWI) Act (Scotland) Section 47 certificate can be completed, allowing healthcare staff to provide treatment while enshrining a number of safeguards for the patient. In 2016 NHS Grampian introduced new AWI Section 47 documentation and its use was audited in an acute palliative care unit. Methods Data was collected from all in-patients in an acute palliative care unit over a 1 week period. Information was collected on four domains: was an AWI certificate present in the medical notes, was the decision to complete an AWI certificate documented in the medical notes (including the reasons for this decision), was the AWI certificate completed correctly, was there documentation of a discussion with Welfare Power of Attorney or next of kin regarding the decision to complete an AWI certificate. Results Data was collected on 16 in-patients, 8 male and 8 female, mean age 71 years. 31% had an AWI certificate completed. AWI certificate completed correctly in all cases. 1 patient had documentation of an assessment of capacity/completion of AWI certificate recorded in medical notes. 2 patients had documentation of discussion with Welfare Power of Attorney/next of kin. Conclusions The proportion of patients with an AWI Section 47 certificate is in keeping with the prevalence of delirium in medical wards. There was good compliance with completion of the new AWI Section 47 certificates. Documentation of assessment of capacity/decision making and discussion with relevant others was lacking - these are important principles of the act and further education and training should address these areas.


Amorphous SiC (a-SiC) films are the most promising dielectric diffusion barriers to replace silicon nitride in Cu-interconnect technology. However, reclaim of wafers with a-SiC films is a challenge issue for mass production. In this paper, a novel wafer reclaim method is proposed. It is observed that a-SiC can be oxidized to SiO/sub 2/ in both dry O/sub 2/ and steam ambients at temperatures as low as 550/spl deg/C. The oxidation mechanism can be described by the Deal-Grove model that is traditionally used to describe oxidation of Si. Experiments prove that the oxidation process is clean and uniform. It is also observed that carbon doped oxide (CDO) films can be oxidized easily, too. Therefore, oxidation followed by HF etching could be a universal process to reclaim wafers deposited with a-SiC or CDO films. Since the oxidation rate of Si substrates at medium temperatures is much lower than that of a-SiC and CDO films, the oxidation process is virtually self-limiting. Compared with a traditional reclaim method based on wafer polishing, this universal oxidation-etching method exhibits great benefits in terms of low cost, high throughput, and the ability to perform nearly unlimited numbers of reclaim cycles.


We report on the fabrication of UV LEDs based on a p-n junction p-ZnMgO/n-ZnO/n-ZnMgO double heterostructure. Pulsed-laser deposition was used to grow the complete heterostructure on c -plane sapphire templates. The LEDs were patterned by simple wet etching. Band-edge electroluminescence emission most likely associated with ZnO excitonic transitions was observed at room temperature. However, the devices show sensitivity to the presence of hydrogen in the measurement ambient due to formation of a surface conduction layer. The results show the potential of ZnO-based materials for UV emitters of potentially lower cost and with comparable or higher emission intensity than AlGaN/GaN devices provided adequate surface passivation techniques are developed.


Hypohalous acids (HOX) are a class of molecules that play a key role in the atmospheric seasonal depletion of ozone and have the ability to form both hydrogen and halogen bonds. The interactions between the HOX monomers (X = F, Cl, Br) and water have been studied at the CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ level of theory with the spin free X2C-1e method to account for scalar relativistic effects. Focal point analysis was used to determine CCSDT(Q)/CBS dissociation energies. The anti hydrogen bonded dimers were found with interaction energies of -5.62 kcal mol-1, -5.56 kcal mol-1, and -4.97 kcal mol-1 for X = F, Cl, and Br, respectively. The weaker halogen bonded dimers were found to have interaction energies of -1.71 kcal mol-1 and -3.03 kcal mol-1 for X = Cl and Br, respectively. Natural bond orbital analysis and symmetry adapted perturbation theory were used to discern the nature of the halogen and hydrogen bonds and trends due to halogen substitution. The halogen bonds were determined to be weaker than the analogous hydrogen bonds in all cases but close enough in energy to be relevant, significantly more so with increasing halogen size.


In this paper delay insensitive asynchronous design techniques are employed to implement a mathematical morphology processor in GaAs. A modified version of the DCVSL family is introduced, in order to achieve ultra-fast data rates. Simulation of architecture implementation in GaAs MESFET 0.6pm Vitesse technology demonstrates the reliubility of this ASIC system for high end image processing applications.


Supercritical fluid Extraction (SFE) is a green technology as use of supercritical CO2 (SC-CO2) is the most widely used since it is nontoxic, non-flammable, non-corrosive, and easy to handle allowing supercritical operation at low pressures and near room temperature. Supercritical CO2 (SC-CO2) is cheap and readily available in bulk quantities with a high degree of purity, ensuring minimal alteration of the bioactive compounds and to preserve their curative or functional properties, possesses the ability to solubilize lipophilic substances, and can be easily removed from the final products. It is environmentally friendly and "generally recognized as safe "GRAS" technique. This paper presents an overview of the literature addressing the genesis of SFE to the application of supercritical fluids in various aspects of the food industry and is divided into eight different areas: SFE Principle, Extraction Parameters, Extraction/Separation Methods, Carbon Dioxide as Supercritical Fluid Extraction, Other Super Critical Fluids, Instrumentation and Working Apparatus, Extraction/Separation Methods. The review also discusses subsequent advantages of this method over other extraction process.